Suspensions down nearly 32 percent at city schools

Suspensions decreased in New York City schools by nearly 32 percent in 2015 compared to 2014, according to new data released Thursday by the city Department of Education.

The significant drop in suspensions bolsters Mayor Bill de Blasio and city schools chancellor Carmen Fariña's citywide school discipline reform, a main goal of which has been to reduce suspensions in city schools. The discipline reform — announced last February — also took aim at suspensions for "insubordination." That category of suspension decreased 81 percent in 2015.

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The new suspension policy is a direct response to former mayor Michael Bloomberg's stricter suspension plan, which de Blasio criticized as a mayoral candidate. School suspensions dropped 10 percent in 2014 from 2013, the last year of Bloomberg's tenure.

The new suspension data was released as part of a new City Council law requiring the DOE to report school discipline data annually.

The New York Civil Liberties Union and Advocates for Children both released statements on Thursday praising the drop in suspensions. NYCLU director Donna Lieberman has pushed the city to go even further with its discipline reforms, including disclosing more information on school-by-school discipline data.

The DOE has budgeted $47 million for next school year to add mental health services for schools with particularly high suspension rates, social-emotional learning training for pre-Kindergarten teachers, additional social workers, restorative discipline practices and other services.

While civil liberties groups and other advocates have praised de Blasio's discipline reforms, the mayor's foes in the local charter school sector have focused their recent organizing around safety issues in the city's district schools.

The advocacy effort began shortly after the publication of a widely-read New York Times story showing a Success Academy teacher berating a student for not understanding a math problem. In the weeks since, Families for Excellent Schools, a charter advocacy group that frequently collaborates with Success, has held frequent press conferences and released reports accusing City Hall of turning a blind eye to dangerous district schools.

That advocacy push has led to a dispute over data tracking methods for school safety issues. Charter groups have said state data shows that crime is up in schools, while City Hall has maintained that city data demonstrates that crime is down.

Charter advocates suffered a setback in their advocacy effort around school safety earlier this week, after the Daily News reported that a Success school in Harlem was put under lockdown after a student brought bullets to school.

The city also released new data on EMS transports of students from schools between July and December 2015. The number of EMS transports is essentially flat; it decreased half a percentage point from 2014. Roughly 14 percent of EMS transfers related to students' emotional or psychological state, according to the city.

"The restorative justice trainings equip educators with critical resources to effectively address and manage disruptive behaviors and teach students independence and accountability that applies in the classroom and beyond," Fariña said in a statement. "The 31 percent decrease in suspensions is encouraging, but we have a lot more work to do to expand best practices and further support all students and staff in safe and supportive learning environments across the City.”